Good Drawings Become Bad When Horizontally Flipped ?!

Ken · Jun 6, 2009

Just drew a tiger for a project. Came out satisfactory. Realized afterwards that it had to be facing the other way: left instead of right. So I scanned it and flipped it horizontally with PhotoShop, which worked fine. Odd thing is that the drawing is off somehow and no longer looks right, now that the tiger is facing the opposite way. Guess I'll have to do a bit of reconfiguring to get it looking okay again. Was just wondering if anyone else has encountered this phenomena with their own drawings?

Julie Worth · Jun 6, 2009

A standard technique is to look at a drawing or painting in a mirror. Any distortion will be magnified because you've been looking at it one way so long.

Ken · Jun 6, 2009

... interesting to know, Julie. I'm going to give this a try. Thnx.

dpaterso · Jun 6, 2009

Ken said:
Was just wondering if anyone else has encountered this phenomena with their own drawings?

'Tis one of life's great mysteries! Even after I realize something looks askew when the drawing is reversed, I can't pin down what. Tho' I have noticed that my drawing hand tends to drift off-center, to the right, as it works -- so maybe this gives me a slightly skewed or twisted perspective which my eyes happily compensate for but which is still "wrong."

-Derek

8thSamurai · Jun 6, 2009

Yup. It's a pretty standard method to see stuff that you're skewing.

Ken · Jun 6, 2009

... thanks Derek and 8thSamurai. Good to know I'm not imagining things ;-)
I suspect I won't be able to figure out what's off, in my own drawing, either. What you say about a skew to the right sounds feasible. I'm going to try flipping some of my other drawings and see if they also look wrong reversed. (Maybe I can use the skew tool on Photoshop to correct this, though I doubt that.)

dnic · Jun 6, 2009

Yup.

I generally flip the picture in the painting program to check how it's turning out, especially when it's something that has to be symmetrical. It's a change of perspective. Sort of like how changing the font of the story and re-reading it lets me catch the mistakes that I'd missed.

sunandshadow · Jun 6, 2009

Yeah drawings that look fine one way often look bizarre if flipped, especially faces. I'm not sure I like the process of flipping it, fixing any weirdness, then flipping it back - I tried it a few times but it seemed to make the drawing look bland.

veinglory · Jun 6, 2009

The flaws generally pop out more to the artists who has habitauted to the former version. To an unbiassed observer both versions ofthen look about the same.

elae · Jun 6, 2009

I'll flip my art sometimes, when I'm trying to capture a specific pose or want to make sure I'm not too far off, but I've also found that it just leads to a huge time-suck-- you spend so much time nit-picking at things you really don't need to worry about in the long run. And like said above, too much over-working can take the life out of a drawing sometimes.

I've found I'm more likely to flip when I'm working on a single illustration or pin-up, rather than comics.

IanMorrison · Jun 6, 2009

I've noticed this as well. As a consequence, I've bound a hotkey in photoshop to flipping the image, and I abuse is regularily to make sure that the image looks correct during all stages of creation.

Ken · Jun 8, 2009

... thanks for weighing in, everybody.

Intense that perceived flaws may only be in the eye of the artist and pass detection by unbiased observers, as V.G. says. Will have to investigate creating hotkeys, Ian. There are some functions I use repeatedly that would be easier and less time consuming to carry out this way. Overworking drawings can indeed make them bland and sap the life out of them, Elae and Sun. Oddly, I am often after this effect ;-)

Like your comparison, Dnic, between switching fonts to catch mistakes in text and fliping drawings to catch visual errors in drawings.

Managed to fix my drawing by flipping it and then printing it out and reworking the lines. Not much alteration, but it looks okay now. The tiger in the drawing had to be facing left instead of right so it would be facing the protagonist. So I had no choice but to flip it, horizontally. Thanks again for the insight, all, and luck with your own drawings

Olan: Walking, going right; but now, walking going left.

Shweta · Jun 30, 2009

It has to do not only with distortions but also with line quality. Flipped drawings don't imply a naturally flowing pen/pencil with either hand. The effect can be pretty disconcerting, especially when there are no obvious distortions to fixate on

This is probably one reason reworking the lines worked out for you. When I need to flip an image I'll generally flip and retrace.
'cus I'm lazy :tongue

Ken · Jun 30, 2009

... pretty complex issue, weighing all the points that have been mentioned, previously, and this latest one about line distortions and quality, you mention, Shweta. Puts the whole process of drawing in a new perspective. Thanks! (Maybe in some ways distortions can be visulalized by thinking of line work as rivers? Reverse the flow and they would look a bit unnatural, with the fish swimming backwards

Shweta · Jun 30, 2009

Ken said:
Puts the whole process of drawing in a new perspective.

...So to speak

Sorry, couldn't resist.

Ken · Jun 30, 2009

Good Drawings Become Bad When Horizontally Flipped ?!

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